The Land Use Sequence Optimiser (LUSO): A theoretical framework for analysing crop sequences in response to nitrogen, disease and weed populations
Roger Lawes A C and Michael Renton A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, Private Mail Bag 5, PO Wembley, WA 6913, Australia.
B The University of Western Australia, School of Plant Biology, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: roger.lawes@csiro.au
Crop and Pasture Science 61(10) 835-843 https://doi.org/10.1071/CP10026
Submitted: 27 January 2010 Accepted: 29 June 2010 Published: 14 October 2010
Abstract
The break crop effect, where a non-cereal crop provides relief from soil pathogens, may increase soil nitrogen reserves for a cereal and help minimise populations of herbicide resistant weeds. It is widely used in agriculture to maximise the economic return and yield of cereal crops. In Western Australia, cereal crops are being grown with increasing frequency, at the expense of less profitable break crops and we have developed a land use sequence optimiser (LUSO) to analyse strategic break crop decisions across a suite of price, yield, nitrogen fertiliser cost, soil borne disease load and weed load thresholds. The model is flexible and can easily be parameterised for a wide range of economic, edaphic and biotic parameters. We demonstrate its use in a strategic sense to determine economic and biotic thresholds that force a rotation change in a typical Western Australian cropping system.
Additional keywords: crop sequence, rotation, weeds, disease, optimisation.
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